On Wednesday night, Holocaust Remembrance Day began all over the world.
On Thursday morning in Israel, a two-minute siren sounded at 10:00 A.M. to signal that the country should observe a moment of silence.
People shopping in Jerusalem's central market, or "shuk," stopped in their tracks:
…as did everyone else in other parts of the city:
The siren for #HolocaustRemembranceDay in #Jerusalem just now. pic.twitter.com/6QFBtIxayv
— Mark Halawa - حلاوه (@HalawaMark) May 5, 2016
Meanwhile, cars pulled over on the highway as the entire country came to a halt:
PHOTOS: People across #Israel stand still remembering 6 million #Jews murdered marking #HolocaustRemembranceDay. pic.twitter.com/mPIyN3PAyU
— Israel News Feed (@IsraelHatzolah) May 5, 2016
The White House offered its condolences:
"'Never forget. Never again.'" —@POTUS on #HolocaustRemembranceDay: https://t.co/JGOp6Hd9Ly pic.twitter.com/eUymMbONIJ
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 4, 2016
…and lots of people on Twitter posted meaningful quotes:
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
— Dirk Rohpeter (@WOPR83_joshua) April 22, 2016
Edmund Burke#HolocaustMemorialDay pic.twitter.com/b3tOKcUjgO
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu--who recently tried to blame the Holocaust on the Mufti of Jerusalem--used the occasion to call out European leaders for anti-Semitism.
"British parliamentarians, Swedish officials and opinion leaders in France" are guilty of "propaganda" attacks on Jews, Netanyahu said during a ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, according to Israeli news site i24.
Six million Jews perished during the Nazi genocide. Many of the survivors later emigrated to Israel, which was founded in 1948, just three years after World War II ended.
Sixty-eight years later, most of those who survived the Holocaust have passed away. Many of those still alive are poor: 45,000 Holocaust survivors in Israel live below the country's poverty line.
--Hunter Stuart
